Saturday, May 05, 2012

In Search of the Tea Parties

Where is the Tea Party, where is the Tea Party?Why does everyone keep asking us where we are?You political pundits out there didn’t want us to rally publicly, remember?You were worried it would be bad for the Republican presidential candidate’s “image.”You were afraid someone might be wearing a tri-corn hat and that the adolescent Progressives would make fun of us.You were afraid someone might show up dressed as George Washington (perish the thought) and rally the Tea Partiers to defend their freedom.

You were (rightly) concerned that right-wing extremists might turn up with racially-charged signs.You feared that the Media take pictures of people with conspiratorial signs asking to see Obama’s birth certificate.What a bunch of nut-cases.Oh – wait – Obama’s own lawyers admitted in a N.J. court last month that the long-form birth certificate he produced and displayed for the sake of the whole nation was a forgery.

Fear not.We’ve gone back underground like you wanted.Chances are you won’t see us again.It’s not that we’ve “moved on” to other things, exactly; that we’ve taken the “next step.”We should still be doing rallies, in addition to all the other activities in which we partake.Fortunately, our neighbors we got driven underground.When they see us with our buttons and tee shirts, they smile with relieve.

We have not gone away.We are not just planning things but doing the things we organized for in the first place.Most of the Tea Party organizers are relieved not to have to do the rallies.Rallies were a lot of work for all the volunteers.We got your attention.Then you wanted us to go away.Now you want to know where we are.Are you by any chance missing us?Make up your minds what you want.

One thing we’re not doing is plotting to blow up bridges like the Occupy Cleveland participants.Occupy Cleveland is distancing itself from these violent protestors, much as the Tea Parties had to distance themselves from racist sign-bearers whom no one actually knew.What goes around, comes around.

Even the Conservative media is trying to paint Occupy as a largely peaceful group, with growing numbers.

Fox News reports, “Aside from some vandalism and skirmishes with police, notably in Seattle and Oakland, the movement has largely stuck to its nonviolent approach. But the angry rhetoric of 'Occupy' leaders has long concerned authorities, and an internal Department of Homeland Security memo leaked earlier this year warned that fringe members could be driven to acts of terror, such as the thwarted plot to blow up a busy commuter bridge on May Day.”

“’I think most people involved with the Occupy Movement are innocent, but it creates an environment that encourages criminal behavior," said Rep. Peter King, (R-N.Y.), who heads the House Committee on Homeland Security. ‘What they [occupiers] do is create a climate for wackos to carry out their plans.’

“The case makes an internal Department of Homeland Security report released by WikiLeaks in October seem prophetic. The report, entitled "Special Coverage: Occupy Wall Street," warned that the movement's mantra of peaceful protest would not preclude acts of violence taken up in its name.

“’The growing support for the OWS movement has expanded the protests’ impact and increased the potential for violence,’ said the report, released as part of a joint document dump by WikiLeaks and Rolling Stone. ‘While the peaceful nature of the protests has served so far to mitigate their impact, larger numbers and support from groups such as Anonymous substantially increase the risk for potential incidents and enhance the potential security risk to critical infrastructure.’

“According to the Occupy Threat Center, a database established by data analytics company ListenLogic to analyze social media posts for threats to corporations from those associated with the 'Occupy' movement, leaders have called for physical destruction of buildings and violent action, and associated ‘hacktivist’ groups have targeted financial and law enforcement institutions. Speakers at rallies around the nation have called for an uprising similar to the French Revolution.”

Speakers at the Tea Party rallies and at indoor meetings all across the country since have been calling for an American Revolution.We must meet in relative seclusion, while Occupiers roam the streets in Guy Fawkes masks openly calling for an overthrow of the U.S. government.

We need our Tea Party members to call these silly talk show hosts and let them know how things really are.The Tea Parties are alive and well, thank you very much, and getting very little credit for surviving all on our own these past three years. Please let us know when we have your permission to hold rallies again so you can see that we’re still here.

Friday, May 04, 2012

Osama's Stamp of Approval

The Progressive Media received a posthumous letter of recommendation from terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, according to the UK Guardian.

The paper reports, “Osama Bin Laden pondered the merits of US television news channels as he considered how to extract the best propaganda benefit from the tenth anniversary of 9/11 last year, and concluded that CBS was ‘close[st] to being unbiased’.

“But an American-born media adviser for al-Qaeda warned Bin Laden to beware of the broadcasters’ “cunning methods” as he described Fox News as a channel in the ‘abyss’ that should ‘die in anger’, CNN as too close to the US government and MSNBC as questionable after it fired one of its most prominent presenters, Keith Olbermann.

“In a memorandum made public by the U.S. Military’s Combating Terrorism Center Thursday, Bin Laden asked for advice on exploiting the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

“’We need to benefit from this event and get our messages to the Muslims and celebrate the victory that they achieved. We need to restore their confidence in their nation and motivate them. We should also present our just cause to the world, especially to the European people,’ he said.

“Bin Laden suggested contacting Al-Jazeera.

“’You can point out to them that this way they will be showing the other opinion,’ he said.

“’But he also wondered if it would be good to work with an American channel, suggesting CBS as ‘close to being unbiased.’ Bin Laden added that the organisation should approach a British journalist, Robert Fisk of the Independent, and other reporters to press home the message that the major powers would be better concentrating on climate change than pursuing al-Qaida. He wrote:

“’This is a chance to explain our motives for continuing the war. The wise people would tell you to give people their rights in order to be able to focus on other vital issues such as global warming. They have the option to stop the war, but we do not have any option, except to defend our nation. This is a conflict between the biggest cultures in the world at a time when the climate is changing rapidly.’

“A U.S.-born al-Qaida spokesman, Adam Gadahn, wrote back to Bin Laden laying the merits or otherwise of using US news stations to mark the “Manhattan battle” as it is referred to in the memo.

Osama dismissed Fox News as an angry broadcasting channel that “falls into the abyss as you know, and lacks neutrality, too.”

Meanwhile, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will appear before a judge in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, tomorrow to be arraigned for the second time.This will be another “victory” for Obama, as the trial is brought to a swift and satisfying conclusion, one that Obama will put on his resume.

U.S. prosecutors will seek to convict Mohammed and four others of the worst terrorist attack on American soil. At the same time, they’ll try to show that the military tribunal system the Obama administration has established can comply with international standards.

Civil libertarians are complaining that a military tribunal will allow evidence obtained through “torture.”

Tomorrow, U.S. Army Colonel James Pohl, the presiding judge, will ask the five defendants whether they understand the charges against them, want to be represented by lawyers, and are satisfied with the attorneys they now have, said James Connell, a lawyer for Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, a Pakistani who’s one of the five defendants and is accused of helping finance the attacks.

Liberals claim a trial may be at least a year away but justice is likely to much swifter than they claim. Defense lawyers already have filed motions seeking access to their clients without government monitoring and urging that statements the defendants make in court be disseminated publicly and not classified.

The five are charged with conspiring to finance, train and direct the 19 hijackers who seized four airliners used in the attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon outside Washington. The charges include terrorism, hijacking aircraft, conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war and attacking civilians.

For a death sentence to be imposed, as the U.S. seeks in the case, a jury of at least 12 officers must agree unanimously on the verdict. While it’s unclear what sort of defense KSM’s attorneys will mount, it’s likely that he is seeking the martyrdom he failed to achieve on September 11, 2001.

Those who suffered on September 11th may be assured that no matter the sentence, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will die as he lived, a blustering coward.

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Post-May Day Celebrations

Yesterday was the first anniversary of Osama Bin Laden’s death.Obama celebrated the day by making a surprise visit to the troops in Afghanistan and giving himself a congratulatory speech for having the courage to give the order to kill him.

Does anyone still remember the scurrilous treatment Pres. Bush received when he wanted to visit the World Trade Center on one of the anniversaries of the 2001 attacks?Does anyone remember how he was practically forbidden to visit the site on the anniversary?Yet Hilary Clinton, whose husband was responsible for missing the terror mastermind the first time was welcomed as was candidate Barack Obama.

While he was congratulating himself on this important anniversary, he also sent an innocent dissident back into the hands of Chinese communists?Will Obama congratulate himself on the first anniversary of Cheng Guangcheng’s almost certain death?The guards past whom he slipped were executed for their failure.Imagine what is going to happen to Cheng?

When Osama was killed, Americans celebrated.But their cheers were silenced by those who said it was in bad taste or who said it was dangerous.Here we are a year later and Obama has no scruples about congratulating himself on Bin Laden’s death, adding it to his extremely questionable presidential resume.

‘Well, yeah, I wrecked the economy, raised taxes, imposed a progressive health care on a public that never really knew what it was Congress voted on, and want to pursue relations with Tehran, where he was said to have sheltered in-place for awhile and Beijing.But I got Bin Laden.”

He also got Cheng Guangcheng.No doubt China will reward him with whatever Obama asks for.We should also give a shout out to Hilary, as our Secretary of State.One has to wonder about the selection of the date of getting Bin Laden, as well as the betrayal of Cheng Guangcheng – all on the day after May Day, the official Communist holiday.

Osama had been there in Pakistan for awhile, evidently, surrounded by his wives and children in a fortress-like compound and was said to be unarmed when he perished (the passengers on the 9/11 planes, in the Pentagon, and in the Twin Towers weren’t armed, either).Why May 2nd, in particular?Why not sooner?Sooner is better than later but much sooner would have been much better.

There’s still one more victory lap for Obama and that will be the trial and probable execution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – just in time for the election in November.

Today is the National Day of Prayer.Let us pray to God that people will see through Obama’s guile and vote for Romney.

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Nothing to See Here

The networks’ six p.m. coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests last night was so brief that if you blinked, you’d miss it.There was only time for CBS, the Communist Broadcasting System.Their Hispanic reporter, Pablo Guzman, was out there marching along with them.He reported that it was just an all-American event, oh-so-peaceful, just families marching for their rights.

Things were relatively calm in New York City.There was some minor violence but nothing to disturb the networks. Los Angeles and Seattle were a different story where, according to The Blaze, a “YouTube purporting to be of a May Day march in Los Angeles shows a protester walking up behind what appears to be a female officer and slamming her head with a drum. That sends the officer stumbling forward, and before she can regain her composure, the assailant runs off.The LA times reports that a female officer was struck in the head with a skateboard and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. It’s unclear if this is the same incident and the attack weapons are simply confused, or if this is a separate attack.”

Their own threats of violence on May Day put local law enforcement and Conservative media on the alert.The threat they posed this time, however, was more insidious.In any case, the New York media was able to report that it was nothing but a big, happy parade of peaceful civilians exercising their rights and there was no need for all the hoopla by the Conservatives.At least not here in New York.

As we know, had the Tea Parties been out there, the Media would have portrayed an even more peaceful rally as racist, divisive and hate-filled, which is why the Tea Parties have gone underground, although I don’t agree with them.

The Progressives, like my neighbor, are staking out their territory, engaging in smear campaigns, and taking advantage of the free and favorable media coverage they receive.It’s a hard fight and we’re the underdogs, but that doesn’t mean we have to run up the white flag, even if we lose some battles.

I lost the battle of the birdfeeder last night when a baby possum showed up to partake of the bird seed.The Tattooed Lady started yelling and screaming that there was a rat, thanks to my “god-damned”birdfeeder.She even pointed it out to a passing neighbor and took a picture of the poor creature shaking under my car.By this time, I’d come to the window.The passing neighbor gave me a dirty, disgusted look.This woman knows perfectly well it was a possum, not a rat, but the neighbor didn’t.The creatures came from the river by way of the nearby garbage dump.What’s more, possums are not aggressive; even if her dog managed to catch it (and if the dog weren’t running loose, it wouldn’t be in any “danger”), possums don’t fight back; they play dead.So that’s what I have to do.

In any case, she was threatening to call the police, so I decided discretion was the better part of valor until I could talk to the condominium management.We want this to be about her and the fact that her dog is still running loose, she’s got garbage cans and all kinds of junk all over the common area, and that she’s still ruining the unit with her smoking.We don’t want anything to distract from the fact that this battle is about her.

Still, it’s very sad.I’ve had the birdfeeder for 16 years and it’s never been a problem.We suspect this woman may be rental rat.Landlords, in a bad housing market, will plant a disruptive tenant in a turnkey condominium complex like this one in order to either drive the surrounding tenants out or mount a smear campaign to get the targeted owner kicked out.It’s rare, but the association can “vote”an owner out of their unit.

Many condo owners across the country suffer from this same fate, and for less cause than a birdfeeder.They’re targeted for flags, barbecues, patio furniture, and numerous false complaints.My older brother, who’s a facilities manager, didn’t believe me when I told him.He said it all sounded Orwellian and couldn’t believe it’s communal living or communism, but it is.The other owners and I only own our units, not the property, and enough of a collective of other owners can vote to force a targeted owner to sell.

Things were not always this way.When I first moved here, they didn’t allow people to move in and then rent out their units.They didn’t allow anything out in the common areas, but in trying to accommodate residents so that it didn’t feel like they were warehoused in a prison, the association relaxed some of the rules.At least for some of the people.This is the result.

The fate we face now and have been facing these 16 years will be everyone’s fate if Agenda 21 is implemented and people are herded into condominium apartments and townhouses.This is what will happen to them – to all of you – if you don’t stand up against this Progressive agenda.

I was very sad last night and asked God why He took my birds away.I’m sorry to say, I don’t have many friends or at least much of a social life.The birds at the feeder were a source of happiness for me.Never let the Devil know what makes you happy.Anyway, God said that it wasn't about the birds; it's about the money and trying to force owners out, and that it was also so I would send the message out to all of you to beware of Agenda 21 and Occupy Wall Street.

This woman practically has me imprisoned in my own unit (and isn’t through yet). Like OWS, she's sneaky and cunning. She had the gall to tell one of the other neighbors that I'm the one "intimidating" her and that now that I'm home all the time, she can't "do" anything (like let her dog run loose or destroy the grass). I haven’t gone quietly into that good night, however.Being a professional photographer has its advantage and I just added an inexpensive security camera to my arsenal.

So don’t let these people trick, intimidate, or bully you into silence or despair.No matter what they do, you must not give up.They are the Wicked Percent, and they will get their come-uppance.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

There Goes the Neighborhood

The weather is beautiful.You’ve bought your azaleas and your annuals.You’re getting ready to lay out your garden, put out the patio furniture, pave your driveway, or put new siding on your house.New Jersey is well-named the “Garden State.”New Jerseyans take pride in caring for their properties.That’s life in the suburbs and you love it.This is what freedom is all about.

But hold onto your garden hats:the state is about to hose our property values.On Feb. 21, the State Assembly, led by Assemblyman Jerry Green, introduced The New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act, which provides an expedited process – 45 days – for foreclosing on abandoned residential properties.

Abandoned properties are springing up like weeds in New Jersey, thanks to the bad economy, the bank failures, and the Community Redevelopment Act, which forces banks to grant mortgages to people who can’t pay them.Now, the state wants to buy those foreclosed properties from the lending banks, using your tax dollars, and give them to the indigent.The government will then be the owner – and distributor – of private property.

This act will borrow nearly a billion dollars without voter approval to buy foreclosed homes in the state for individuals with “special needs.”The legislature, in its beneficence, lists a charity ward of sympathetic groups like ex-convicts, recovering alcohol and drug addicts, the physically and mentally disabled, and the largest component of Section 8 housing, welfare recipients.A state agency will determine who qualifies for this transformative transference of property.

Charity is a fine thing.A major company with offices in New Jersey wanted to benefit a run-down neighborhood in a major N.J. city.They offered to plant a community garden for the residents.Volunteer employees planted the garden, while the residents stood and watched. When asked why, they responded that the local drug gang threatened to retaliate against them if they cooperated with the evil corporation.The police escort, protecting the volunteers, predicted that the flowers and plants would be gone by morning.

Having no stake in the homes, the new tenants in our neighborhoods will take no better care of the properties than those inner city recipients of corporate charity.Our property values will plummet.Crime and violence will escalate, making once quiet neighborhoods dangerous and depressed.What’s more, the electoral map will be “transformed” in favor of government wonks who will continue to guarantee free housing in the ‘burbs.

The N.J. Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act is just one more step towards destroying freedom and ownership of private property (a noted communist goal).The Welfare Act of the 1960s was just the beginning.Welfare was followed by CORA, followed by the failure of the savings and loan institutions, and followed again by the bank failures of 2008.Prospective property buyers took the bait of Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs), purchasing expensive homes at unstable interest rates.From there, destroying the economy was simply a matter of a stock market manipulation and there went the neighborhood.

There went the businesses that employed us.There went our property values, taxes, savings, communities, and future.The bill is still under consideration.There’s still time to save our neighborhoods and the American way of life.Once again, we must prevail upon Gov. Christie to veto this bill (poor guy must have telephone ear by this time).Call and tell him we don’t want the N.J. Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act in our backyards.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Send in the Ducks

Here’s another lesson on the trials of communal living and the on-going saga of the Tattooed Lady.

People who don’t have to live near her think she’s a nice lady.If they lived near her or had to deal with her, they’d be cured of their ignorance. Rent one of your homes to her (please!) and then see how nice you think she is. The Tattooed Lady bullied me into not feeding a couple of starving cats or she’d call the board of health.Then she bullied me into removing plants in my own garden that she insisted were weeds, although they weren’t; they were wildflowers and wanted me to separate my irises when they’re doing just fine.Then it was the common water faucet; she wanted access to it.That I couldn’t deny; those are the roles.

“I don’t see a single bud!” she claimed.A week later, there was a sea of irises, thanks to the prematurely warm weather.

Meanwhile, she keeps garbage cans and other junk outside her back door.She insisted that I’d let her dog loose when I hadn’t.She’s been harassing other neighbors as well.The neighbors above her, she insists, make a lot of noise going up and down the stairs.Their dog is ruining the front lawn, she complains, even while her own dog is ruining the back, which she seldom has a collar on and never uses a leash with because of her disability.And this is a big dog.She insists the dog minds her, but it doesn’t.

And so it goes, on and on.Now she wants my birdfeeder removed.She and her lawyer were complaining on Saturday to the head groundskeeper that it’s attracting bears and snamkes (not in the nearly 20 years I’ve been here).The mice were a problem, it’s true; until they made a nest in my car and met a horrific, squeaky death one morning.Well, at least they’re no longer a problem.Meanwhile, she continues to smoke two packs a day outside on her porch, which I was told she’s allowed to do, and probably smokes four inside, judging by the stench emanating from her windows and into my own.

But the rules are for the rest of us, not the Tattooed Lady.Early in the Spring, she started inviting the mallard ducks up from the river.According to the by-laws, that’s a big no-no, although it was no problem with me, personally.When she asked me if it was wrong, I told her, although by then I already had the incriminating photo of her feeding them.Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

As it happens, however, the ducks are solving the problem of the scattered birdseed.I emptied out a number of window boxes which I can no longer afford to fill with expensive annuals from Home Depot, and set them under the bird feeder to catch the excess because I don’t want mice bothering my upstairs neighbor, who is a good neighbor.

I don’t have many true joys in live, but feeding the birds is one of them.I asked God if feeding the birds was such a mortal sin.His answer was to send a flock of ducks – drakes – to deal with the scattered bird seed.The only obstacle to a complete, thorough clean-up is the Tattooed Lady’s own dog, who naturally barks at the ducks.

There’s also been a to-do about planting tubulars along the top of the riverbank.Gardening is not my specialty; these plants came from my mother’s garden.She assured me they would hold in the soil.The TL, however, insists that this sensitive area must serve as a dog run for her dog, who loosens the soil with her paws instead of holding it in.She successfully killed all the plants, allowing the dog over there, so this spring, having more time on my hands, I replaced all these plants.

The Tattooed Lady’s solution to this problem was to send the dog down the embankment to dig up the flowers.The whole neighborhood heard her.But Mom must have had me plant something disagreeable to dogs.While she happily dug at the plants, the dog decided this was no longer a prime location for doing one’s business.The Tattooed Lady yelled at the dog and even hit her until the pooch fled into the nearby parking lot (could that be another bad reason for having a dog you can’t control?) and did it there.

It was pretty funny, really.The TL was bagging the metal pan with the scooper, but to no avail.What a racket.What a mess.Finally, she hit the dog with the scooper and the last I could hear, she was hitting the dog inside her unit (I could hear it yelping).

What goes in must come out, and what goes around, comes around.Mom said I should plant plastic plants and flowers from now on.

Work, Study, Save, Shop

Tomorrow is Occupy Wall Street’s May Day Mayhem Day.They are calling for a general strike with no work, school, shopping or banking.Cities around the world are preparing for the Mayhem.

One group who will watch this event with particular interest is the unemployed.No work?No worries there – we’re already not working, thanks to the Progressives who help begin OWS.No shopping?Well, we don’t have the money to shop.No banking?Not much money is going into our savings.Our savings aren’t earning any interest – the rate is at 0.25 percent and most banks are charging all sorts of service fees for the privilege of saving our money with their institutions.

But go ahead – hurt more little people like us, from the clerks in the banks to the customers who still have the money to make purchases. Yeah, that’s really going to help the economy, isn’t it? Protestors plan to block everything from the Port of Oakland to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the George Washington Bridge in New York.

According to Bloomberg News, in New York, Occupy Wall Street will “join scores of labor organizations observing May 1, traditionally recognized as International Workers’ Day. They plan marches from Union Square to Lower Manhattan and a “pop-up occupation” of Bryant Park on Sixth Avenue, across the street from Bank of America's 55-story tower.

“’We call upon people to refrain from shopping, walk out of class, take the day off of work and other creative forms of resistance disrupting the status quo,’ organizers said in an April 26 e-mail.

“Banks have pooled resources and cooperated to gather intelligence after learning of plans to picket 99 institutions and companies, followed by what organizers have described as an 8 p.m. “radical after-party” in an undetermined Financial District location.

“’If the banks anticipate outrage from everyday citizens, it’s revealing of their own guilt,’” said Shane Patrick, a member of the Occupy Wall Street press team. “If they hadn’t been participating in maneuvers that sent the economy into the ditch, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”

“Organizers describe the May Day events as a coming together of the Occupy movement, with activists also calling for more open immigration laws, expanded labor rights and cheaper financing for higher education. Financial institutions remain a primary target of the protests.

“Four years after the financial crisis, not a single of the too-big-to-fail banks is smaller; in fact, they all continue to grow in size and risk,” the group’s press office said in an April 26 e-mail.

“Occupy Wall Street began planning for May Day in January, meeting in churches and union halls with a decision-making system that avoids a single leader. Instead, participants rely on group “break-out” sessions in which clusters discuss such tasks as crowd-building, logistics and communications.”

About two weeks ago, I had a dream about the Occupy Wall Street movement.In the dream, they occupied the town where my former company has offices.All manner of strange people were milling about; people you wouldn’t ordinarily find in this particular town:guys in dresses, with tattooed legs and so far.They were all gathered behind in an empty parking lot, hiding behind a building until the right moment came.

I had no idea why I was there, since I was laid off.I knew what the Occupiers were going to do in advance, and I had bought one of those V for Vendetta masks to get by them.But when I got into the office, I didn’t recognize the people or the company and wasn’t very happy with whatever work it was I was doing; I didn’t fit in with them, any more than I fit in with the Occupiers.

Finally, I found my old boss and warned him that these characters were lying in wait to ambush them as they tried to come out of the building, rather than trying to keep from entering.OWS should realize that New Yorkers are accustomed to disruptions and have learned to adapt.They’ve experienced transit strikes, power outages, heavy rain and snowstorms, riots, and of course, terrorist attacks.New Yorkers will find a way around OWS.

Since New York is a “college town” you can expect some stupid students to show up, even though they’re supposed to be studying for their final exams.The stupidest students are the ones who can least afford to take a holiday from classes.

As for shopping, physical retail stores may experience problems, but there’s always online shopping.A one-day disruption isn’t going to hurt many stores, anyway, especially not on a weekday.Gainfully employed peopled shop on the week-ends.

The main problem will come at banks, even though most people do their banking online these days, and on the roadways as commuters try to get to their jobs.With the economy so bad, you can depend upon the commuters to push back, not join up with a Communist movement dedicated to destroying jobs and free-market economies around the world.